List of towns and cities in England by historical population

This is a list of the largest cities and towns of England ordered by population at various points during history. Until the first modern census was conducted in 1801 there was no centrally-conducted method of determining the populations of England's settlements at any one time, and so data has to be used from a number of other historical surveys. The lists below are derived from the best available data and the ordering is in many cases only approximate.

Contents 1 Pre-Roman England 2 Roman England 3 Anglo-Saxon England 4 Norman Conquest 5 Medieval England 5.1 Rankings by year 6 17th/18th century 6.1 Rankings by year 7 Nineteenth Century 7.1 Rankings by year 8 Twentieth century 8.1 Rankings by year 9 References 10 See also

Pre-Roman England

Not much is know about Pre-Roman England. There is barely any recorded evidence of English life before the Romans.

Roman England

Immediately following the invasion of 43BC, the Romans set up several major camps. The largest of these were, in order, Londinium (London), Camulodunum (Colchester), and Verulamium (St Albans). Over the three centuries of Roman rule, the importance of other settlements grew and by the end of their rule, the largest were Londinium, Corinium Dobunnorum (Cirencester), Verulamium, Viroconium Cornoviorum (Wroxeter), and Eboracum (York).

Anglo-Saxon England

Norman Conquest

The Norman Conquest of 1066 changed the demographics of England, with many settlements having being destroyed by the invading army.^[1] In 1086, William the Conqueror ordered the creation of the Domesday Book, a systematic survey of the kingdom of England. Over 100 settlements were classified as "borough" status and the number of houses or burgesses were counted. Nonetheless, it is not possible to be sure of the exact population of any settlement and the table below is ordered by the recorded number of houses. London was comfortably the largest borough in England and has remained so ever since, though was not included in the Domesday survey, nor were Winchester, Bristol or Tamworth and so their exact size must be estimated.^[2][3]

Rank	Town	Population
1	London	10000
2	Winchester	6000
3	York	5000
4	Norwich	5000
5	Lincoln	5000
6	Thetford	4000
7	Oxford	3000
8	Ipswich	3000
9?	Bristol

Medieval England

By the start of the fourteenth century the structure of most English towns had changed considerably since the Norman Conquest. A number of towns were granted market status and had grown around local trades.^[4] Also notable is the reduction in importance of Winchester, the Anglo-Saxon capital.

Although not a direct measure of population, the lay subsidy records of 1334 can be used as a measure of both a settlement's size and stature and the table gives the 30 largest towns and cities in England according to that report.^[5] The lay subsidy, an early form of poll tax, however, omitted a sizeable proportion of the population.

In 1377 the first true poll tax was levied in which everyone over the age of 14 who was not exempt was required to pay a groat to the Crown. The records taken listed the name and location of everyone who paid the tax and so give an excellent measure of the population at the time, although assumptions need to be made about the proportion of the population who were under 14, generally taken to be around a third.^[5][6]

No strong information for population exists for the fifteenth century, with most modern estimates relying on analyses of baptism records. For the sixteenth century, the lay subsidy returns of 1523-1527 once again provide an excellent measure of households and adult population from which the overall populations can be estimated.^[5] The table shows the prosperity of East Anglia, principally due to the wool trade, accounting for eleven of the top thirty (whereas only one, Norwich, makes the top thirty largest towns and cities today).

All population values given in each of the tables below must therefore be taken as an estimate.

Rankings by year

17th/18th century

The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries proved a low point for Britain's demography with no major structured survey of the nation's populations. The best estimate from this period is obtained from the hearth tax of 1662, which formed a survey of the number of hearths in each home. As with the Domesday survey, this did not form a direct measure of population but can be extrapolated to provide an estimate of the population of a town. The 1662 table gives the approximate order of the towns of the time from the survey. Most notable from a modern viewpoint is the fact that Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool and Sheffield do not make the top thirty, whereas within around 100 years they would become England's largest provincial cities. The 1750 table is again formed from estimates.

Rankings by year

Nineteenth Century

The Census Act 1800 resulted in Great Britain's first modern census a year later, and other than 1941 a census has been taken every ten years since.^[8] The resulting populations of England's towns and cities clearly shows the effect of the Industrial Revolution on the urban population, particularly in the growth of the cities of the north and north-west. The data in the tables are taken from the censuses.

Rankings by year

Twentieth century

Measurement of the population of England's towns and cities during the twentieth century is complicated by determining what forms a separate "town" and where its exact boundaries lie, with boundaries often being moved. The lists are those of the constituent towns and cities, as opposed to those of the district or conurbation. For example Salford is measured separately to Manchester, and Gateshead to Newcastle. The only exception to this is London for which the measure is that of Greater London. See English cities by population for further discussion.

Rankings by year

References

See also

• List of urban areas in England by population
• Demography of England - for the population of England at various points in history.